December 3rd: Green & Black's Caramel

Kcal 511 Fat 27.4g Carbs 56.0g (per 100.0g)

Only a month or so ago I was swearing I wouldn't be buying another Green & Black's product for a 'long time' but having received a request from ChocolateMission reader Phil ages ago I felt obliged to give this bar a well overdue review. I say the review is well overdue for two reasons - firstly I am admittedly not always that keen to review Green & Black's products due to poor past experiences. Secondly this Caramel bar has been almost impossible to track down and it wasn't until I stumbled across it in Waitrose last week that I managed to chance upon it. Described as 'milk chocolate with a soft caramel filling' this was a product that certainly had its work cut out given the quality of the milk chocolate caramel bars I have reviewed previously.

I found this Caramel variant in a 100.0g form that was segregated similarly to the previously reviewed Green & Black's Mint bar. Aesthetically I didn't like the outer wrapper but I guess most of you could have already guessed this so lets not open up that can of worms again. On a more positive note I did like the look of the chocolate with the inner caramel filling looking surprisingly dark and treacle like in colour. In addition to looking relatively appetising the fresh smelling chocolate scents further added promise and managed to engage me a lot more than the packaging at least.

In the interest of not being overly negative I want to get the bad stuff out the way quickly and it wont surprise you to hear that I didn't think all that much about the milk chocolate. Like so many of the Green & Black milk chocolate bars I have had before I just felt that the milk chocolate was lacking in a distinctive taste. There was nothing bad or overly wrong with the milk led, mild cocoa taste but there was just nothing about it that made it stand out as anything special or unique to any other milk chocolates I have had recently. One thing I will say about the chocolate was that the melt was pretty well paced and just about the right thickness for it to accentuate the soft feel of the caramel once it was exposed. On the contrary to the chocolate I have more positive things to say about the caramel as it was noticeably different to any other caramel chocolates I have had recently. The caramel tasted quite like golden syrup but had floral honey notes with a subtle hint of vanilla which I must say did leave a lasting impression on my palette. This was certainly a chocolate best enjoyed once it had been chilled in the fridge but even though this slowed the melt somewhat it was still quite an easy one to consume in 50.0g servings at a time.

Overall Green & Black's were hindered here quite badly by the quality of their milk chocolate as the caramel filling went down pretty well with me. Whether I would say I preferred the caramel filling of this bar over the caramel in Cadbury Caramel or Galaxy Caramel is a separate thing altogether as what makes those bars so wonderful is the way the chocolates and caramels synergise. This could be purely just down to personal opinion and I would welcome your own thoughts on Green & Black's milk chocolate should you wish to share. I have said this many a time over the last year but personally nothing strikes me about the G&B milk chocolate as unique or offering anything different to other products or brands in the market. What really tips the scales for me is the fact that it is at a price premium to brands such as Galaxy, Dairy Milk, Hershey etc who all offer something a little different. To sum up I can't fault the quality of the caramel filling here, but G&B really have to do something with their milk chocolate recipe.